(Reuters) - A Manhattan state judge on Friday ordered Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to turn over documents related to its representation of the Trump Organization, ruling the law firm had marked some of its communications with former U.S. President Donald Trump's business as privileged when they were about business tasks and decisions, not legal advice.

Justice Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the New York state attorney general's probe into whether the Trump Organization improperly manipulated the value of Trump's assets to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits, cited a decision that held "(a) lawyer's communication is not cloaked with privilege when the lawyer is hired for business or personal advice, or to do the work of a nonlawyer."

Morgan Lewis is home to Trump's longtime tax counsel, Sheri Dillon. The firm has in recent weeks aimed to distance itself from Trump, saying this month that it is "transitioning as appropriate to other counsel" in any ongoing matters. Other firms have also cut ties with Trump or pledged to review their political giving after hundreds of the former president's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Dillon, who previously worked at Vinson & Elkins, and the Trump Org's counsel at LaRocca Hornik Rosen & Greenberg did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The lawyers representing Morgan Lewis in the case, firm partners Tim Stephens and Nathan Andrisani, declined to comment, as did a representative for New York Attorney General Letitia James.

James in August said she began her probe after Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said in congressional testimony that the former president's financial statements inflated some asset values to save money on loans and insurance, and deflated other asset values to reduce real estate taxes.

The state's August complaint said Morgan Lewis had withheld or redacted over 3,000 documents and "refused to produce substantive communications about any topic between Sheri Dillon and key employees of the Trump Org."

Morgan Lewis in a September filing said it hadn't produced the documents because the Trump Org in good faith asserted they were privileged and that it had provided prosecutors with a log of all documents that were withheld and why.